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MONTREAL — There are thousands of reasons to be grateful for the holiday season that just ended. Make that 956,365 reasons.

Thanks to our generous readers, that was the final tally for this year’s Gazette Christmas Fund: $956,365.52, provided by 6,420 donors. That is an increase of $38,000 over last year’s total, and is made up of contributions large and small from individuals, companies, foundations and The Gazette’s employees.

The smallest donation we received — an anonymous one — was for $2.75. The largest was $30,000 from the estate of a loyal Gazette reader who wished to share some earthly good fortune with fellow citizens.

The money was used to write 8,200 cheques of $125 each, distributed to 162 local agencies such as Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, West Island Big Brothers and Sisters and the Société St-Vincent de Paul.

Our partners in those local agencies tell us year after year how much those cheques mean to the recipients. This year, I asked some of our most loyal donors why they chose to give to the Christmas Fund.

Dick Bourne has been contributing for the last 22 years. Every year, in partnership with Sun Life, he organizes Dick Bourne’s Free Lunch, this year attended by 80 people. He and Sun Life pick up the tab and pass the hat. Three charities benefit, including the Christmas Fund, which received $4,025 this year.

Bourne, an adviser at Sun Life, was reluctant to talk about his role in organizing the event. “I don’t do it for the recognition,” he said. “I just want to help three organizations that do a good job.”

The Roslyn Avenue Poetry Society also contributed this year, as it has for the last 20 or so years. The poetry society is what CSIS might call a “front” for a slightly less lofty pursuit: poker. As part of a side bet among the nine devoted card sharks, a $200 donation is made to the Christmas Fund.

Why? “It is important to us that there are no administration costs — every penny goes to charity,” said Ian Ronald, who has been there since the group got started in 1977. “It’s also important to us that it is non-denominational. It is for everybody of any stripe, according to their needs.”

Ariel Shlien of the Mad Science Group is also a repeat donor. “There are so many people who are less advantaged than we are,” said Shlien, CEO of Mad Science, which provides science experiences to children. “The Christmas Fund makes those stories real to readers, and provides help to the people you write about.

“A cheque for $125 is not going to change anyone’s life, but it might be enough to shine a light and give someone hope. Sometimes that’s all you need to lift you out of despair.”

That is what we believe, too. And that’s why I will be writing to you again next winter to ask for your help when the 48th annual Christmas Fund gets underway. Until then, thank you once again for your generous contributions.

Where to Canada’s most charitable people live? Using data from tax returns, GIV3, an organization that encourages charitable giving, found which census tracts donate more of their income than others.

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